Steps
by Arctimon
Summary: They're an important part of any process, whether it's the place you have the argument or how you make a solution. Let's see if Hiro has the patience for either when someone else gets involved. Takes place after "The Bot Fighter", slight Hiro/Karmi.


_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation and SFIT is owned by a group of board members overseeing the day-to-day operations of-_

 _~gets dragged off~_

 _(By the way, as this story is being uploaded, I have not seen the finale, so **please** do not spoil anything for me or anyone else. I will watch it in due time.)_

* * *

 _ **Steps**_

Normal superheroes probably don't have to deal with this sort of thing.

Hiro found himself on the stairs leading outside the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, not because he wanted to. Most days would involve him riding home after classes on his scooter, Baymax deflated and in his case.

Not this time.

Hiro had been arrested botfighting, running a lead on the string of robot robberies around the city. It involved going back into the world that Tadashi and his friends had spent a long time pulling him out of, and it resulted in the culprit getting away, but at least the robberies were put to an end.

Also ending, at least for now, was his free time.

Aunt Cass had grounded him for a week, limiting the time he could spend outside of school to his room and the cafe. Hiro, not wanting to risk any further retribution, accepted his punishment without argument. His scooter was also confiscated, forcing Aunt Cass to transport him to and from school.

Considering everything that had happened, he was getting off rather light. At least he wasn't in a jail cell.

Hiro took a glance at his phone. It looked like she was running a little late. It didn't matter, really. It wasn't like he was going anywhere.

"Well, now."

...Oh no.

The clacking of her shoes came up from behind him, stopping on his right.

"Planning on sitting there all night, Genius Boy?" Karmi's ankles said.

"Not in the mood right now, Karmi."

"You're never in the mood."

Hiro pulled his hood over his head to try to block her out. You'd think that after the night they actually tolerated each other's existence things would have improved.

Not really. Karmi was still as much of a hassle as ever.

"You waiting for someone?" It was clear that her ankles were going to have a conversation whether he liked it or not.

"I have my ride coming."

"Marshmallow Man break your scooter or something?"

"No."

"Destroy it in a freak accident?"

"No."

"Turned it into a robot and it combusted into a pile of steel and rubble?"

Hiro turned to Karmi for the first time and saw she had sat down next to him, her legs outstretched down the steps. "Really?"

"What? I don't know what you guys do in the Robotics Lab all day." Karmi pulled out her phone to check the time. "Look, if it will make you feel any better, I swear I won't laugh."

Hiro sighed. Certainly this couldn't get any worse, right?

"I'm grounded, OK?"

The snort that came out of her mouth gave her away almost immediately. "I'm...sorry; what?"

"You heard me."

"Do your parents know that you're a college student?"

"My _aunt_ does, yes," Hiro emphasized. "I got in trouble, and now she's my transportation for the week. You happy?"

Karmi crossed her arms in mock disdain. "Nah, what's really bugging you? You've been in your own little world ever since a few days ago. I mean...even more than usual."

Not hearing a response, she looked at the boy genius. "And there you go again."

"...You think you know a person, and they turn out all wrong."

"Excuse me?"

"What?" Hiro snapped back into reality. "No, I wasn't talking to you."

"You were talking _about_ me."

"No!" he exclaimed. "I was talking about some other gi-"

Hiro caught himself, but too late. The cat-like grin growing on Karmi's face was threatening to tear out from her cheeks.

"Oh my goodness! I knew it! Little Hiro is in love with someone!"

"Shut up."

"When is the wedding? Am I invited?"

"Shut up!"

"Actually, I know a really good photographer if you want-"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

A wiser person would not have yelled that for the entire campus to hear, but Hiro wasn't having any of it at this point. He stood up so fast his head started to spin. Karmi recoiled back, shocked.

"Stop trying to act like you're concerned, because I know you're not!" The boy genius was beside himself. "It must be so great to see me in trouble. Am I going to star in your latest fanfiction? You write about me enough already!"

Had Karmi been paying attention, she would've been able to read between the lines. But she stood up as well, grasping her purse to her side. "I'm trying to be nice here, you jerk. You should-"

"Yeah. Try. Main word there. It must be so frustrating to try to do something and not succeed, huh?"

Karmi's face was sullen as she reached out for his shoulder. "Hey, look. I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Her hand never got there, because Hiro swatted it out of the air. "Yeah, you are pretty sorry."

HONK!

The sound of the truck's horn caused him to let go of her hand. Now flustered, he grabbed his discarded backpack from the ground. "I have to go." He made his way to the passenger side and threw the door open.

"So, did you have a fun day at school?

The car door slammed shut.

"That fun, huh?" Aunt Cass started off, waving in the mirror at Karmi, who was still standing in front of the campus. "So, who was that?"

"Hmm?" Hiro was still wound up from his fight that he almost didn't hear her. "Some girl from school."

"She seems cute. What were you guys talking about?"

Hiro crossed his arms, looking out the passenger window. "Nothing. She was trying to get me angry."

"Didn't really seem like that to me."

Her nephew slunk down in his seat. "How much of that did you see?"

"Enough." Aunt Cass looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was behind her. "Sweetie, I think she was just trying to cheer you up."

"She has a funny way of showing it."

"Yeah, girls are like that sometimes."

Hiro said nothing. Aunt Cass drove a bit before speaking up again.

"Hiro, you're going to have to get through that thick brain of yours that not everything is about you. The botfighting, with that girl...you need to look at the big picture."

"She started it."

"Since when has that been a good excuse?" She retorted as she pulled up to the house. "She's your friend, right?"

Hiro jumped out of the car. "Not really."

"I'm sure she wants to be." Seeing her nephew's look of defeat, she smiled. "See? Didn't think about that, did you?"

Aunt Cass and Hiro walked through the door to the cafe...and stopped.

"Did you put Baymax in his charger, Aunt Cass?"

"No. Why?"

Hiro pointed to the far end of the cafe, and she saw his nephew's robot sitting in the corner, a depleted battery sign flashing on his chest. Mochi was on his head, along with a small tower of pastries.

" _Did you know that these donuts are missing substance in the middle of them?"_

* * *

Karmi stifled a yawn as she made her way to her lab. It wasn't a very good night of rest, to say the least. Her argument with Hiro last night had put her mood in the toilet, and only a very healthy dose of morning tea allowed her to function in any capacity.

"Don't even know why I try with that kid," she mumbled as she fumbled in her purse for her ID. "The one time I try to be nice..."

" _You weren't trying to be nice,"_ she thought.

"I was."

" _Is your idea of nice making fun of his obvious misery?"_

"How am I suppose to know what's bugging him?"

" _By asking him and then listening. And then you act appropriately. At least that's how normal humans have conversations. You would know that if you didn't talk to your organisms all day."_

"You're crazy."

" _Says the person having an argument with her inner conscience."_

Karmi's eyes widened. She swung her head left and right, hoping that no one saw her.

"That would've been awkward." Karmi finally had her ID out to swipe her lab open. She held it to the handle to scan...and it didn't work. Frustrated, she bent down to look at it and she saw a purple note staring back at her. On it were two things:

 _Stairs_

 _7:15_

" _..._ I really need to teach this kid to write more things."

* * *

His phone buzzed right at a quarter past seven. Hiro was so used to Baymax setting reminders that he had almost forgotten how to do it. He turned up to the entrance to see if Karmi was on her way and saw nothing.

"This was totally a mistake. I should've waited a couple of days." He went to reach for his backpack. "I didn't technically put a day on my note; maybe I can get away with that."

"Unlikely."

Hiro stopped mid-grab. "How-"

"You do know there's more than one way to get off of the campus, right?"

He looked up at the new arrival in front of him. "I don't normally go out anywhere else."

"I've learned." Karmi stepped forward from her spot, taking a seat next to him. "You really need to get out more."

Hiro raised an eyebrow at her.

"I walked into that one, didn't I?" Karmi fidgeted around to get more comfortable. "So, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah." Hiro tapped his knee absentmindedly. "About last night...what I said to you was uncalled for. It was petty, it was way too far, and I said it out of anger. I should've just kept my big mouth shut...I'm sorry."

Hiro turned his body away from her, bringing his legs up to his chest onto the same step. "I have issues that I'm going through, and I don't expect you to understand, but there's no reason for me to take that out on you."

He felt a weight push up against his back, and he thought that it was her hand. Then it started to flatten out. It was _her_ back. He stole a glance to his right, and his suspicions were confirmed: Karmi had taken up the identical position to him, facing the opposite direction. Her ponytail served as an artificial barrier between the two.

And a pillow, of sorts. It was nice.

...Focus, Hiro.

"I appreciate that," Karmi whispered. "And I...probably should apologize too. I was so focused on annoying you that I went too far. I shouldn't have forced the situation." She couldn't help but laugh at herself before she started again. "To be honest, I'm still getting used to talking to actual people and not things under a microscope."

"Can I suggest something that we can do?"

"Shoot."

Karmi saw out of the corner of her eye Hiro throw his left arm out, waving in the general direction of the campus. "When we're in there, I don't care. We can annoy each other, we can take stupid pictures all we want. I can deal with that. But let's leave that in there. When we're out here (she saw the right arm move the opposite way), we're civil. OK?"

"I think I can agree to that," she smiled.

"Swear on it."

"I swear."

No response.

"Hiro, I said I would-"

It was then she noticed his right hand right near her shoulder, the last finger on it pointed to the sky. "Really? You're going to make me do that? What are we, kids?"

He likewise turned his head slightly, a grin on his face. "Compared to everyone else here, yes."

"That's fair, I guess." Slowly, she reached her hand to his and intertwined their pinkies.

For a moment, they stayed in that position, letting the silence wash open them. Hiro was the first to break contact as Aunt Cass's truck came in the entrance of the campus. "Well, there's my ride. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hey, Genius Boy!"

His hand on the handle, he turned back toward Karmi still at the walkway. "Yeah?"

"What a week, huh? We annoy each other, get in a fight, and make up all in a day? A little crazy, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Hiro opened the door, smiling at her. "It's almost like we're actually friends now."

Karmi returned the smile and waved him goodbye. Hiro got into the truck with a grinning Aunt Cass waiting.

"You look like you're in a better mood than yesterday."

"Yeah, Karmi and I...came to an understanding."

"I'm not going to ask what that means, but I'm assuming that's a good thing."

"It is." Hiro took one last glance in the side mirror back at Karmi, who was now on her phone. "I think we're actually going to tolerate each other now."

She didn't understand that either. "You're not complicating things, are you?"

"I don't...think so?" Hiro said. "But we're working on it. Baby steps, I guess."

"...So when are you going to invite her over for dinner?"

"Aunt Cass!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** This was NOT suppose to be the sequel to "Magnetism". It was suppose to be something entirely different, and come right after the ending of the aforementioned story. But...I couldn't get it right. Might revisit it at one point, depending on how the finale goes.

Speaking of which, I'm literally an episode behind when it comes to these stories. I have another one (don't know when it'll be up) based on "Obake Yashiki". Again, I'll probably wait after the finale to see if there's anything else I can get out.

Big thanks to everyone who gave me such great feedback after the first _BH6_ story. I'm glad that it got such a great response. Hopefully I won't massively disappoint you with my follow-ups. ;)

I will also reiterate down here if anyone missed it: I have _not_ watched the finale. I _will_ watch the finale. It will probably be on Monday. I realistically don't think anything that will happen in the finale would change what happens in this story.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


End file.
